PLAGUES AND PESTILENCE
As Coronavirus spreads around the world Horsham Museum & Art Gallery have produced a fascinasting history of how Horsham coped with various diseases over the ages.
In the 14th Century abandoned houses were dismantled and the materials redistriuted.
Spanish flue poster from 1918.
The Justinianic Plague
The Black Death
Names can tell us a lot about the origins of a place.
After 600 years of population growth, in 1348 the Black
Horsham - a place where horses breed, Storrington - a
Death arrived on our shores and spread rapidly throughout
place where storks can be found, Slinfold - a pen for sheep,
the country. Caused by the same bacteria that caused the
Cowfold - a place for penning cattle before taking them
Justinianic plague, the Black Death pandemic killed an
into the woodland meadows, and Henfield; not a field of
estimated one third to two-thirds of the population of
hens, but a high field. These are just a few examples of
Europe. The Black Death was a debilitating illness that
villages in Horsham District that get their name from their
caused fever, fatigue, swellings in the groin and armpit,
geographical location, the local flora and fauna, or
festering sores, and often lead to death. If you were lucky
occasionally from the name of an owner. Interesting, all of
enough to survive you were likely to be scarred for life.
these names have a post-Roman origin, their Roman
The Black Death affected everyone, even those who didn’t
names have disappeared. The explanation for this is
catch the disease, as it impacted the entire country socially,
extremely topical for, towards the end of the Roman
psychologically and economically. Unfortunately we do not
Empire the Justinianic plague ravaged Europe from 541-
have any contemporary accounts of its specific effect on
750AD. The Justinianic plague killed around 13-26% of
Horsham, however we can use information about similar
Europe’s population. Much like the later Black Death, this
towns and villages to estimate the impact of the Black
plague was transmitted by the fleas found on rodents.
Death on our town.
When the Saxons arrived in Sussex, they didn’t come to a
In the Middle Ages people believed that the Black
land teaming with people, but to a wilderness of
Death was transmitted via dirty air, or “miasma” and some
woodland and scrub. They therefore chose local features
people chose to flee urban areas for more rural ones in the
to name the towns and villages.
hope that cleaner air would protect them. Despite the
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MAY/JUNE 2020
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